Mosquito Wars!

This past month, me and my husband are on the move for mosquito hunt!  Especially my husband! Since the start of the rainy season, something happened to my husband and he became so obsessed with them. He believes they only bite him!:)

Every night, after 8pm something happens, and they are so many off them flying in the air, and trust me all the windows are closed by 5pm in our house. The weird thing is, they are not the mosquitoes we are used to, call me crazy, but these ones are smart!! for some reason they do not die! Last week, we counted we killed around 25 of them in one night! And let me also mention, those mosquito plugs are useless, mosquitoes definitely developed resistance to them. So do not waste your money! Make sure to put your bed nets down, they are a must these days! But do not think they will stop bothering you, OK they cannot bite,  but how about that awkward noise these small creatures can make! Can not wait for month of January:)

Crime in Nairobi!

This is one of the sensitive issue in here, in small circles everybody knows but never likes to talk about, basically ignores and change the subject. People around me even say, crime is everywhere! not only in here! What an excuse to make yourself feel comfortable, right?!

 I totally do not agree, and am being very open about it when people ask me.

Before we moved to Nairobi, I read many articles about the crime in the city, even heard the term 'Nairobbery'! And found it, do not know, may be little awkward or overboard. Unfortunately, what I ve witnessed myself in first hand, it is Nairobbery!

Open one of the local newspapers, horid stories start right away, from the front page until to the back. At some point, you feel like this is too much? may be not true? how can it be? But from my conversation with locals, that is only the tip of the iceberg! Lately, I have been hearing from the expat community, all the compounds around us burglarized a few times. And there are people moving between compounds because they have been robbed already many times, and please let me point out, supposedly, these are gated secured compunds! What I learned is, most of these are inside jobs, these people know your movements, where you are, what time you go to sleep, or if you are on a Holiday! It tends to happen mostly in single houses, but lately lots of burglaries in compounds as well. I hear some people say, there are crimes in every major city.  I can agree with that argument a little but not much. Worst thing is, when something happens to you even in daylight, people do not move, they just stare at you, like they are in the circus, and they are there to watch this (Believe me, it happened to us!) And further, there are neither cops nor police stations you can call up to, or there are no patrolling cars on the roads, because vast majority of the police force do not have cars! Can you see the big picture now? I am not writing this to scare people or write bad things about Nairobi, but it is what it is. If you live here, or planning to move here make sure to do your research diligently.

Short Rains Are Back!

It has been very dry lately (very unusual) up until this past weekend. Now it feels like all of a sudden the weather has turned 180 degrees in one night and the cooler, rainy weather is back in full swing! Locals say that the rain arrived late this year. As much as I hate the rain in Nairobi (imagine the conditions of roads and traffic which were already in grid lock!) we needed it.

All the dust disappeared from the roads. The trees and flowers aren’t brown anymore! There is fresh air outside, and even though holes in the road are filled with water, it is a great refreshing feeling.

On the other hand, water cuts are back too! We’ve had water cuts on and off throughout whole week, so we feel fortunate to have water tanks :). And of course mosquitos are back as well. They are the most stubborn creatures I have ever seen-- they bite you no matter what you do! And the noise they make at night wakes you up! So we are definitely putting our mosquito nets down at night these days. Typically, short rains continue up until the end of December or the beginning of January. They give the crops much needed water. Luckily it mostly rains at night, and we still can see the sun during the day with lots of fast-moving clouds.